Café Momentum is a Dallas-based restaurant that only hires formerly incarcerated youth. Now the model is going national.

Chef Chad Houser has a new vision of juvenile justice: “We want young people to thrive instead of survive. We offer a program that will help change generations.”

Chef Chad Houser’s idea for Café Momentum came after he volunteered to teach eight incarcerated teenagers how to make ice cream. Though he already had an award-winning restaurant, after that experience, his life — and entire business model — changed.

Today, Café Momentum only hires justice-involved youth between 15 to 19 years old. The Dallas restaurant is so successful that Houser is replicating the model in Nashville and Pittsburgh, with new cafés opening in each city in the coming months. 

And the changemaking restaurateur isn’t stopping there.

Read more: https://standtogether.org/news/cafe-momentum-offers-new-vision-for-justice-involved-youth/